Goon (2012) – Review

Review: Goon is a great sports comedy (probably the best hockey centric comedy since Slap Shot). The film is about Doug Glatt, an outcast in a family of doctors who works as a bouncer (and is not particularly intelligent). However, he finds his calling when he joins a struggling hockey club as their enforcer. Director Michael Dowse and writers Jay Baruchel and Evan Goldberg get hockey – the atmosphere, the lingo, the culture – which is why this comedy works so well. Its foundation in minor league hockey is solid (the games are also shot very well), but it can still be enjoyed without a knowledge of hockey specifically as sports culture/comradely is somewhat universal. That said, the film is also very funny – full of crude jokes, oddball characters and great hockey related antics and hijinks. In many ways it is very reminiscent of Major League. Along with the crude nature of the humor, the graphic violence of the film will probably not appeal to all viewers. There is a lot of blood and mild gore. Again, this is the story of a minor-league enforcer, whose role is to stand up of his teammates and fight. The film also has an interesting juxtaposition to what is happening in the NHL at present with the true enforcer role coming to an end. However, this is based on Doug Smith who was prevalent in the 1980s when enforcers were very much a necessary part of the game. Dowse and company structure the narrative well, creating the film both as a showdown between Ross Rhea (an aging enforcer who is feared throughout the league) and Doug and as a story about friendship and finding one’s place. Dowse does a very good job with the characters, economically and efficiently developing them. Doug is crafted as a brute, but a generally friendly and caring guy who supports his team and teammates as he beats the crap out of opposing players but does not do it from a place of hate. He is a very likable character. The viewer cares about Doug and his relationships, elevating the film from merely being funny or violent. Doug’s developing relationship with Eva (the love interest), his friendship with Xavier (the star player who has lost his confidence) and the admiration and showdown with Ross (which is great, two gladiators battling in the arena) are all stories the audience cares about. At its heart, Goon is the story of Doug finding where he belongs in the world, having been lost all his life. And in this, it works well.

Technical, aesthetic & acting achievements: Michael Dowse, coming off the terrible comedy Take Me Home Tonight, has returned to making films that are both funny and have good characters like his early work (Fubar and It’s All Gone Pete Tong). This is my favorite of his films to date. The soundtrack and original music from composer Ramachandra Borcar both contribute to adding to the great atmosphere and tone that Dowse creates, perfectly capturing the spirit of hockey. This is also true of Sean Vizsy’s art direction. Cinematographer Bobby Shore does a fantastic job with the hockey sequences. The games feel legitimate, which is often not the case in sports films. Goon is littered with great bit characters and performances. The Russian characters are very funny, and Jonathan Cherry’s goalie character is brilliant. Jay Baruchel, Alison Pill and Marc-Andre Grondin are great in supporting roles, as well. Liev Schreiber steals every scene he is in. He is just fantastic as Ross Rhea – big, strong, intimidating, and with the swagger of a gunfighter. Seann William Scott is good. He plays Doug as a man with a ton of heart and grit.

Summary & score: Goon is one the best sports comedies, just with more violence and cruder. 7/10

Salt (2010) – Review

Salt is a fun, exciting action film, wholly ludicrous and lacking real emotional depth, but quite entertaining none the less. For this film to work, the viewer must suspend their disbelief, even within the world that the film has created, as the action and plot, while visually stunning and exhilarating, are substantially farfetched (especially the action). There is a place for exaggerated action (see screenwriter Kurt Wimmer’s Equilibrium), but it does not play nearly as well in a thriller supposedly based in reality. What holds the film together is director Phillip Noyce’s ability to tell a good story amidst lots of explosions and chases and other actiony things. And, Angelina Jolie is cast perfectly for the role and is able to carry it (thankfully Tom Cruise dropped out, as this is much better than it would have been with Cruise). Noyce is able to keep the film flowing and moving forward keeping the audience engaged in the story by not letting it repose or linger too long in one spot. His management of the narrative structure is top-notch and the pacing of the film is one of its strongest attributes, something that is rarely mastered. Jolie is very good dramatically and in her ability to pull off the stunt work (doing most of her own stunts), but a major flaw in the film, damaging the emotional core, is that she seems to have no chemistry with August Diehl (who is also a good actor in other films). The lack of chemistry and the film not really giving enough time to the relationship between Jolie and Diehl’s characters leads to the audience not buying into the emotions and thus not investing in the characters – which in turn makes the movie about seeing how the story turns out and not about the characters, hampering it from being anything more than a fun action movie. It is a shame that the casting in this instance was not better suited as it would have made the film have a much bigger emotional impact making it more powerful for viewers and ultimately a better film. On the technical side, Noyce delivers another good action film, which is not surprising given his track-record. Wimmer writes another high action thriller with twists and turns abounding, but like some of his previous work, the emotion is lacking. The score is quite good from composer James Newton Howard drawing the viewer in (which the film needed without real emotion coming from the characters). Robert Elswit, as always, shoots the film beautifully and Scott Chambliss provides fitting production design to the atmosphere of the film. While Jolie is good and Diehl is not given enough depth, the other principal supporting cast is adequate in their roles, though the issue with all the characters, really, is lack of emotional depth (the viewer does not care about any of them, aside from actor allegiances brought into the movie). The film was truly built as a star vehicle. Liev Schreiber and Chiwetel Ejiofor (who is wonderful in many other films) are decent, as is Daniel Olbrychski, but none of them is given anything dramatically interesting to do. Salt makes for a great thrilling story and medium for Jolie, but not much else. 6/10